Technology Area

The Technology Area deals with analysis and research into physical and virtual learning environments. It designs and develops applications and technological architecture for the education sector. The research examines in depth the different aspects of learning environments for schools: school architecture, virtual worlds, tools and technology for innovative education, and e-learning solutions for the national and international panorama.

The Technology Area:

• designs and develops research to encourage the advanced use of technological tools in schools and in educational systems in general, organising trials of innovative technological solutions that include both hardware and software;
• studies and analyses the development of the technology sector with particular emphasis on languages and the application architecture of online education environments, promoting innovation in disciplinary and workshop didactics;
• takes care of the updating, expanding and managing of the Institute’s in-house data centre, to guarantee the smooth functioning of the services;
• designs and produces the  software necessary to carry out research and projects entrusted to INDIRE by the MIUR and other bodies; it also looks after the design and creation of data banks and applications systems for data extraction and statistical analysis.

The Area carries out research into the following spheres:

• educational spaces and school buildings, particularly regarding solutions for well-being at school and the relationship concerning didactics, architecture, technology and furnishings, encouraging innovation in learning environments;
• potential of online 3D immersive environments as a method for distance teaching and as virtual settings to develop learning. This context gave birth to ‘edMondo’, a virtual world designed ad hoc to meet schools’ needs and developed on the basis of open source technology;
• relationship between new technology and teaching­-learning whether disciplinary or interdisciplinary, in order to find effective solutions for classroom settings and software applications for different disciplinary spheres and schools of every type and level;
• impact of the “makers” phenomenon on educational scenarios and its influence on the Italian school system. In particular, an experimental programme has begun on the educational use of 3D printers in infant and primary schools.